Bethlehem, PA: Bethlehem Steel Works and SteelStacks Museum

Steel Works: (Satellite and to the east)

Museum: (Satellite)

The formal name for the museum is National Museum of Industrial History.

Bethlehem Steel also had a research campus in this town.

"In 1857, the Saucona Iron Company was established there. It changed its name to the Bethlehem Iron Company in 1867.  The company prospered through the last half of the nineteenth century by producing iron rails, heavy forgings, and armor plate." [LoC] In 1908, this location built the first Grey mill in the USA to hot roll wide flange H-beams. See Differdange for more information about Grey beams. "At one time, the company was the number one supplier to the domestic construction industry." [OrangeBeanIndiana]

Dale Hein posted
Bethlehem Steel Co. Bethlehem Pa. Plant
Doug Doerr: What are the buildings in the lower left? Keep these pictures coming, I love to look at the past.
Dale Hein: Doug Doerr lower part of picture is the press forge area, it is the only operating steel business today owned by Lehigh Heavy Forge I believe.
Rudy Schwartz: Dale Hein correct forge, heatreat and machine shop
Dale Hein: Doug Doerr upper left is the Structural Shipping Yards, always billed as largest in the free world.
Robert John Davis: This picture only shows about a third of the plant.
[The building with the two fat chimney's to the right of the middle was the BOF, built in 1968.]
Michael Maitland: Coke works far back right. Slag far back left.

8 photos concerning Lehigh Heavy Forge

Dale commented on his post
This is the other half.
Greg Barnes: Dale Hein, this is the view most seen. How does the other photo relate to this one?
Dale Hein: Greg Barnes that is the west end of the plant what we called Lehigh plant for the Lehigh river to the left.

 

Tim Hennessey posted three photos with the comment: "Saw this on another page. 

Bethlehem Steel (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) in 1995."

Batsby Hornicek: these pics were right at the end.

I think John Newman posted that other page.

Phil Jad shared

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Marc Reed posted
Bethlehem Steel (Lehigh Plant) blast furnaces ca. 2006 or so.
Terry Hartman: This mill produced steel for buildings and bridges all over the world. Was considered one of the best mills anywhere !
Tom Molseed: Those cranes in the background were building a hotel and casino on former steel plant land.

Henry A. Jewell posted
Bethlehem Steel Works in 1907.
Kathleen Chandler: And the color of the air is almost exactly correct... Maybe just a little more tinge of red.
Jack Davis shared

Nick Chismar posted four photos with the comment:

Perhaps the most unique furnace on site, Bethlehem Steel's Furnace A at the Bethlehem Plant stands in contrast to its younger contemporaries.

Built in 1910, Furnace A is the smallest of the five remaining blast furnaces with a hearth diameter of 21'6" compared to the next size up, Furnace E, at 24'. 

The Furnace was lit on April 9, 1910, by John Fritz, who himself was 87 years old. Fritz was, and rather still is a legend in the steel industry as a whole for his early adoption of the Bessemer process and design for a three-high rolling mill. He served as General Superintendent and Chief Engineer at the Bethlehem Plant when it was still known as Bethlehem Iron Works. Retiring at the young age of 70 in 1892, Fritz left before former US Steel President Charles Schwab would transform Bethlehem, but he was still involved nonetheless.

During the lighting of the furnace, Lehigh University students were invited to attend as the furnace went on blast.

Furnace A has the distinction of also being the only furnace on site that features the use of rivets as it's primary method of construction. It's four stoves with stacks are also unique to the site and seem to be a bit of a rarity amongst surviving American furnaces.

If I remember correctly, Furnace A was shut down in the late 1950s to early 1960s. It can be seen up close, as well as all the other furnaces, by walking along the former highline which is now the Hoover-Mason Trestle walkway in Bethlehem, PA.

Photos from 2019 - Kodak Tri-X 35mm film

James Musser: A furnace was rebuilt extensively in the 40s or 50s. I believe the whole top works is completely different than how it was originally built. The stoves were fairly common when built, but yes, you don’t see them around anymore. They are 3-pass stoves. There was a large electrostatic precipitator gas cleaning complex located between the cast house and the railroad tracks that was part of the rebuild, but was demoed during the casino redevelopment. These cleaners served A furnace and B furnace. MIke Rabbitt in his history of this furnace said it was in blast until 1969.

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Dale Hein posted
This is the Stuctural Shipping Yards at Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Plant. 25 crane runs mixed around 6 rolling mills. BOF at the top and abandoned Open Hearths with the line of stacks.
Steve Adams: I find it interesting how mills get laid out. I realize many of them evolve over a long period of time, and real estate a factor, but many of them appear to be planned by my kids kindergarten class. Each mill is unique, but the concept of efficient moving of materials from one shop to the next is the same. One thing I also wonder is why management spent so little on keeping the facilities looking decent. 2 guys full time could ensure everything is painted at least over a 3 year cycle and keep the trees and crap cleaned up. Every other industry seems to be able to look after their plants. I think it would help public relations wise, since today many people think mills are a dirty, polluting dinosaur of the past which isn't the case if management doesn't work want it to be.
Bob O'Neal

Efficiency in Design? In 1934 my father became one of the first in a brand new field: Industrial Engineer. Right out of Univ. of Pittsburgh, US Steel assigned him to the huge Gary Works.

He took his stopwatch and clipboard and went into one of their mills to time and measure the work flow. One long weekend he decided to have the weekend shift change the layout of the line. More efficient work flow!

The main shift workers came in on Monday took one look at all this . . . and walked off on strike!

My Dad was called to the plant manager’s office. The manager said, “Bob, you’re a bright, ambitious young man and the layout you made was brilliant.

But we’re going to get you the hell out of here before they kill you!”

He was immediately transferred to New Castle PA. 

In later years he became a chief industrial engineer and was successful, but the mills (and unions) never embraced efficiency and the resulting lack of increase in productivity caused their final demise.

Doug Majka: Forty years after that they still hadn't figured it out, but the foreign competition who came in with their clipboards and stopwatches made notes and learned from us.
Kenneth Treharn: Looks like 15 Open Hearth Furnaces! Impressive.
Bubba Dubs: Does anyone know approximately where the Grey mill was in this photo? I see the newer combo mill on the right side.
Dale Hein: Bubba Dubs to the left of the combo mill is the 40 number 1 mill, then the 48” mill, then the 42” mill. I know the 48” mill was a Grey mill.

 

Bubba Dubs posted
Blast furnace E, Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Pennsylvania.

 

Bubba Dubs posted

Tops works of E furnace followed by the rest of blast furnace row at Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Pennsylvania. 

BD drone photo

John M. Casteline commented on Bubba's post
Steel Stacks community arts and music venue with the backdrop of the old Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces. Industrial Fine Arts at its best.

Larry James Neff posted
Bethlehem Steel plant. 48 inch mill # 2 mill
John Groves: Larry James Neff, do you have any more pictures of the 42" and 48" heavy universal beam mills (the Grey mills)?

Comments on Larry's post

Larry James Neff posted
Bethlehem plant 1984

 

Tom Molseed posted
Blast Furnace, Bethlehem Steel. Beth. Plant.
Brad Perkins: Boy I hated those silver coats.
William Mullen: Keith Wilburn They were the newer jackets, the old ones were white and made with asbestos.
Don Lloyd: wore similar outfit working on electric arc furnace in carson ca. we tapped out heats @ 3,000 degrees!! damn right it's hot!! lol
William Mullen: A photo I took right before we shut down.

William Mullen commented on Tom's post
Blast Furnace Photos

William Mullen commented on Tom's post
Blast Furnace Photos

I could not find this ore bridge in any of the aerial photos. I still can't picture what this plant looked like during its heyday.

1 of 10  photos posted by John Jauchler
Here's a group of photos I took at the Bethlehem complex in Bethlehem, PA on May 29, 2006. This was during the period after the mill had closed, but before the casino had been built. Some initial prep work, mostly installation of new roads, was underway at this point, but the actual construction of the casino buildings didn't start until late the following year.

Michael Jones posted
picture i took of Bethlehem Steel back in 2011

 

Steve Trains posted
Bethlehem Steel
James Torgeson shared
A westbound Norfolk Southern train passes the blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel home plant. This was originally the Lehigh Valley mainline.
Gilbert Pinkley: Used to load out of their just about every week.

Nick Chismar posted
A "Portrait" of Furnace D, Bethlehem Steel home plant.
Ilford HP5 35mm

Юрий Лепихов posted

Bethlehem Steell,Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Stephen Wolstenholme shared
Sjaak Betjes: BF A. 

 

John Heaney posted
River view lehigh River Bethlehem Steel Bethlehem Pennsylvania.

Joey Logan posted
Seen this on twitter. Captioned. The factory that built NYC.
Bubba Dubs: Blast furnaces A, B and C. C is the only one with the downcomer going forward over the top of the skip [hoist].

A short history of the company

80% of NYC skyscrapers and some of the big bridges were built with Bethlehem steel.

 

Nick Chismar posted
Looking east in Bethlehem from the Hoover-Mason Trestle. Ahead stands the remains of the No.2 Machine Shop, formerly the world's longest machine shop. Typically, if you search "Bethlehem Steel" you will find images from the WWI and WWII eras during the production of war materiel which made the shop famous. In the distance stands the No.5 Treatment building, now part of the Lehigh Heavy Forge which still operates today. If what I remember is correct, LHF is the only HEAVY Forge remaining in the United States, utilizing their 10,000 Ton Press.
Matt Boylan: Not only is it the remaining 10,000 ton in the US but I believe it’s the remaining 10,000ton in this hemisphere. The others are over seas. There’s I believe less than 10 in the entire world if I’m not mistaken. It’s a hell of a job, we have a lot of fun in there.
Mitchell Knauss: Matt we also have the biggest distance between bolster plate and cross head.
Jason Sessoms: I don't think there was anything that plant couldn't make.

safe_image for LONG AFTER THE MILL IS SILENT: BETHLEHEM STEEL’S COMBO MILL
["This week" was posted Mar 24, 2022. It was closed in Mar 1997. The combo mill was opened in 1968. The article has several interior shots.]

 

Steve Barry posted
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
March 23, 1996
Conrail SD50 6769 leads an eastbound freight past the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem.
James Torgeson shared
Less than a year cold! This is the former Lehigh Valley Railroad mainline.

SteelStacks-about has a timeline of this site

The part of the works that contained the blast furnaces were not torn down and have been turned into a tourist attraction and a performance space [Steel Stacks].

Street View

 

Thomas James Wiley posted
Blast furnaces at Bethlehem Steel!!
Ray Belcher: Wondering how many Blast furnaces they had there.
Bubba Dubs: Ray Belcher 7 at one point (A-G) 5 in the later stages (A-E)
Donald Heil: At at one time in early 80's B,C,D, and E were still online. Not all 4 at once but usually any combination of 2 of them during the 24 hrs.. E finally went off-line first. As we all know " the rest is history ".

Allen Pugh shared
Richard Allison: In my company, in my department, we were divided between Bethlehem and Canadian ops and the other was USS and everything else. I was always USS and everything else and I miss not being in very many Bethlehem plants. The only Bethlehem plant I spent time was only Sparrow's Point and it was HUGE. When L Furnace was starting, most of it's line furnaces were still standing and in 1978 it was amazing to drive past so many standing blast furnaces, now all gone.

I've been skipping photos of the stacks because they are rather redundant, but this is a new view.

Buffa Dubs posted
Bethlehem Pa, blast furnace row from the river side.

Library of Congress via 1877 via explorePAhistory
Founded in 1741 by Moravians, a sect of German religious communitarians, Bethlehem remained closed to outsiders until 1844. The opening of the Lehigh Canal in 1829 contributed to the town's economic growth, but it was only after steelmaker John Fritz improved the Bessemer process at the Bethlehem Iron Company in the 1870s that Bethlehem became one of the nation's great steel mill towns. In this lithograph from 1877, the Iron Works can be seen in the distance on the right side of the Lehigh River.

William H. Rau via Bethlehem_Steel

1964 Allentown East and 1965 Hellerton Quadrangles @ 1:24,000

John Groves posted two photos with the comment:

Photograph 1: appropriate historic shot of Bethlehem plant blast furnaces from graveyard.

Photograph 2: aerial overview of the Bethlehem plant (photo by Opacity.us)

This new topic was triggered by the recent post asking about the background to Billy Joel's famous song "Allentown" in 1982, about "shutting all the factories down". Allentown and Bethlehem PA are one community, but the famous steel mill is in Bethlehem. The mill actually survived in operation for another 14 years after the Allentown song. It was finally abandonned in 1996. Bethlehem Steel Company also had its HQ in Bethlehem. It was America's second largest steel company for most of the 20th Century. It finally went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001. What is left are now parts of Cleveland-Cliffs Steel.

BETHLEHEM PLANT - FACILITIES HISTORY

Bethlehem Steel Company

Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001. Acquired in 2003 by International Steel Group for $1.3B. ISG was acquired for $4.5B by Mittal Steel in 2005, which became Arcelor-Mittal in 2006. ArcelorMittal USA acquired by Cleveland-cliffs in 2020.

Bethlehem Plant

Bethlehem, PA

Established BF 1863, Bessemer steel 1873, OH steel 1888.

1960 iron facilitues lineup:

Lehigh division,

BF A  21'6", 1,000 tpd

BF B  28'9", 1,650 tpd

BF C  27'11", 1,400 tpd

BF D  28'9", 1,650 tpd

BF E  24'0", 1,400 tpd

BF F  19'0", 800 tpd

BF G  19'9", 800 tpd

BF history:

BF No.1 built 1863, closed 1899 or 1900.

BF No.2 built 1867, rebuilt 1877, 1905, in 1910 renamed BF A, dismantled 1911, new furnace 1915, rebuilt 1941, closed late-1960s.

BF No.3 built 1868 to produce spiegeleisen, closed c.1887.

BF No.4 built 1876, in 1910 renamed BF B, rebuilt 1917, new furnace 1954, enlarged early 1970s.

BF No.5 built 1877, in 1910 renamed BF C, rebuilt 1914, 1922, closed 1929, new furnace 1943.

Old No.6 built 1875, sold and removed 1881.

New No.6 built 1883, dismantled 1906, new BF D built 1906, enlarged 1910, 1926, new furnace 1953, enlarged late-1960s.

(In 1904 BFs A to D had 10ft. hearths and were rated at 150 tpd each)

BF E built 1907, enlarged 1922, new furnace late-1950s.

BF F built 1911, rebuilt 1923, 1928, 1938, closed early-1960s.

BF G built 1911, rebuilt 1936, closed early-1960s.

1960 steel facilities lineup and history:

Lehigh Bessemer shop 4 x 7.5t, built 1873, dismantled 1902.

Lehigh No.1 OH shop 11 furnaces built 1888-?, closed 1930s.

Lehigh No.2 shop 6 OH x 140t, 0.580 Mtpa, built 1912, closed late-1960s.

Saucon No.1 shop 16 OH x 160t, 2.028 Mtpa, built 1907-1912, closed late-1960s.

Saucon Duplex shop, 2 tilting OHs x 200t & 3 Bess x 25t, built 1911, Bessemers closed 1929, OHs might have become part of new No.2 shop.

Saucon No.2 Shop 5 OH x 235t, 1.032 Mtpa, built early-1940s. Closed late-1960s.

5 EAF X 28/50t  0.230 Mtpa

EAFs 1 x 28t (1938), 4 x 50t (1940-57)

Total steel capacity 1960 was 3.900 Mtpa.

1960 mills lineup:

5 structural mills (including 1908 Grey heavy WFB mill), 6 bar mills, all very old.

Post-1960 changes:

1961 new 14"/10" bar mill added, closed 1981. All of the other six old bar mills closed 1977. Three of the old light structural mills also closed 1977 to early 1980s. The closure of these 10 bar and light structural mills was due to mini mill competition. 

By 1980s BFs reduced to just the largest 4, with max. 3 operating, all more than 30 years old. By 1990s only C & D operating.

B 30', 3,200 tpd (new 1954)

C 27'11", 2,200 tpd (new 1943)

D 30', 3,200 tpd (new 1953)

E 24' 2,000 tpd (new late-1950s)

1968 2 LD x 270t replaced OHs (2.7 Mtpa), no continuous casting.

1968 new combination medium beam mill (0.800 Mtpa)

1989 $50M upgrade to 1908 Grey WFB mill (1.0 Mtpa).

In 1985 Bethlehem gave serious study to closing the BF/LD/bloom mills and shipping semis from Sparrows Point to feed the structural mills. The union agreed to cut 550 jobs so the plan was dropped. 

For two years up to late-1991 Bethlehem and British Steel tried to negotiate a JV to  operate the Steelton rail mill and Bethlehem plant beam mills, all fed by an upgraded Steelton EAF/CC front end. The plan was abandoned when the local unions refused concessions.

In 1993 Bethlehem announced a $250M plan to replace the Bethlehem BOF/LD/bloom mills by a new EAF/beam blank CC in the LD shop building. By 1994 this plan was abandonned as uncompetitive against Nucor's new beam mills. The alternative plan adopted was to close the Grey beam mill by end-1996 and invest $50M in upgrading the 1968 medium beam mill. Cast bloom feed was to be shipped from Steelton EAF/CC plant, incurring transport and bloom reheating costs.

The BF/LD & old EAFs were closed in November 1995. At about the same time in October 1995 the Grey beam mill was closed early after 87 years operations. The combination beam mill scored a $25M upgrade in 1996 but was permanently closed in March 1997, ending Bethlehem operations at its home plant.

Five of the BFs have been preserved as a museum and much of the rest of the site turned into a casino.

Bethlehem's plant closure marked the final exit of US integrated plants from the heavy beam market. US Steel closed its historic Homestead 1927-vintage beam mills in 1985 and its 1931-vintage WFB mill at South Chicago in 1992.

Only three USA mini mills now produce heavy wide flange beams up to 36" sizes: Nucor-Yamato at Blytheville  AR, built 1989 and expanded 1993 to 2.7 Mtpa capacity, Chapparal Steel at Petersburg VA, built 1999 1.0 Mtpa (acquired by Gerdau Steel for $4B in 2007), and Steel Dynamics Inc at Columbus City IN, built 2002 and expanded 2010/15 to 2.2 Mtpa.

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James Torgeson shared a link, 1965
The Bethlehem Plant ore yard, 30 years before ore would no longer be needed. As the plant was landlocked, all ore came in by rail.
Citation: Bethlehem Steel Corporation, “Iron Ore Storage, Ore Yard, Bethlehem Plant,” Bethlehem Steel Corporation Photo Collection, accessed October 2, 2022, https://nmihbethlehemsteel.omeka.net/items/show/55.

 

nmih (172 photos)
Citation: Bethlehem Steel Corporation, “Aerial View Ore Yard, Bethlehem Plant,” Bethlehem Steel Corporation Photo Collection, accessed October 2, 2022, https://nmihbethlehemsteel.omeka.net/items/show/59.

 

nmih (172 photos)
Citation: Bethlehem Steel Corporation, “Blast Furnace Cast Floor,” Bethlehem Steel Corporation Photo Collection, accessed October 2, 2022, https://nmihbethlehemsteel.omeka.net/items/show/10.

 

1 of 3 photos posted by Michael Maitland
Question for the group. Here are three archival photos from Bethlehem Steel. Once these massive turrets are fashioned, how are they shipped? Beth was landlocked, so guessing that the turret plates were disassembled and then got their final welds in Brooklyn, Quincy, Philly......Navy yards. Dont see many photos of these being shipped. Clearence had to be an issue on many routes. These also had to be extremely heavy.
John Sheridan: Actually, for the BB55 (North Carolina class) & above class battleships all the armor was shipped as plate then cut & assembled at the yards. For the earlier battleships (like in the photos, they were assembled at the steel mill, taken apart, then shipped as parts. There is no way they could ship an entire turret as the thing weighed a couple hundred tons.
Michael Maitland: Read that once the Navy found out about the Yamato and Musashi 18 inch guns, they needed to match the firepower in the proposed Montana class of battleships. There was a long specially designed building at Mesta Machine in Homestead where the forging would be done. The building might still be standing and owned by Whemco now. 

MilitaryHistoria posted
14“ naval guns and naval gun turret construction. Bethlehem Steel Company, Bethlehem PA. 1918.

Bethlehem_Steel

Bethlehem Steel was the first American steel mill to incorporate the revolutionary Bessemer process in its manufacturing methods. The process—discovered by Henry Bessemer in 1856—removes impurities from iron ore by blowing oxygen into molten pig iron. Coke and limestone are added to the mixture and help catalyze the oxidation process. The end result yields a product sixteen-times more durable than iron and substantially cheaper to manufacture. During Bethlehem’s first full year of operation utilizing the Bessemer process in 1875, the company manufactures roughly five percent of the nation’s steel rails. By 1879, it was producing over eleven percent.

In 1907, Bethlehem Steel became the first manufactory to adopt Henry Grey’s innovative mill rolling process, which produced wide-flange ‘H’ beams (later patented as Bethlehem Beams) that were lighter, cheaper, and more structurally-sound than traditional ‘I’ beams. The corporation also replaced their Bessemer converters with open-hearth furnaces. These furnaces generated extremely high temperatures and allowed molten mixtures to be quality-tested repeatedly over a 24-hour period, which improved overall uniformity and integrity of the finished steel. Both of these advancements allowed skyscrapers to reach new heights and bridges to traverse greater distances.

[DiscoverAmerica]

Thomas James Wiley posted
#2 Machine shop Bethlehem Pa.!
Jeff Mikula: We had one at Sparrows Point also. Huge.

Brett Wanamaker posted
A favorite spot of mine. Bethlehem Blower House
James Torgeson: The Bethlehem turbo blowers are gone. [But the above still exists.]
Stacy Mays: The blowers at both Duquesne and ET were steamers.
Randal McVaney: Stacy Mays CO gas engine. blowers were first generation blowers, steam followed some 40 to 50 years later with over 10,000 hp . AC motors not big enough for BF wind required. Worked at both ET and Duquesne power houses.
William Mullen: They had a big explosion there and it blew the windows out of the building. They were adding oxygen into the wind from the engines and they think the grease caused the explosion. Labor’s we’re working cleaning a walkway that was above the lines that exploded. They just left the area to take a break. When they came back the walkway was gone. The engine house shanty where the man who operated the engines left to take an early shower and his shanty was damaged. Thank God no one was hurt in that explosion.

Trevor Shellhammer posted two photos with the comment:

Here are 2 oldies but goodies that I know for sure are from the Beth Steel Bethlehem Plant foundries (they had 5 foundries in the plant).  Top is the Iron Foundry, shot in the large casting area, or Big Shop, with the heaviest crane.  (2) 84" dia. cupolas in the background.  As published in "The Bethlehem Booster" magazine, Vol 1 January 2, 1919 No. 17.  They had 3 other molding areas, the Lower Run, Middle Run and Dog House.  

The second pic is the Brass Foundry circa 1920, which was adjacent to the Iron Foundry.  Shown are some copper blast furnace tuyeres, and pouring a bronze cylinder casting, most likely a large liner/bushing, possibly for a ship shaft. From 1926 on, these were all cast centrifugally.  Not sure if this one was?  

Glad to see they are almost all wearing hats! And you should be able to pick out the boss in each shot.

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Trevor Shellhammer posted seven photos with the comment: "Found a series of photos of the making of a steel casting, by Bethlehem Steel - Bethlehem Plant's Steel Foundry.  In this case, from patternmaking to heat treat, a casting for a press.  Unfortunately no weight listed, and no pouring pictures...the back of the pictures states: "14,000-ton press casting".  You can figure out where it went...may argue about the press's rating, though!"

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Patternmaking, in the Pattern Shop, 2nd floor of the Lehigh Carpenter Shop.

There was a freight elevator to take patterns, people and materials to the 2nd floor. But patterns of this size, which were not uncommon BTW, came and went via a monorail hoist that exited the building through sliding doors, to be lowered to the ground for trucking to the specific foundry...Iron, Steel, Ingot Mould, or Roll. Brass Foundry patterns used the elevator, some could be put in your pocket!
The building is still standing, it's the twin of the one across the street. That's the former Electrical Repair Shop, now the Smithsonian's National Museum of Industrial History. They're in the process of restoring their 2nd floor to basically double Museum space!

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Pattern nearing completion. No shots of what must have been many core boxes.

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Mold being finished in the pit, at the Steel Foundry.

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Finishing and Core Setting.
Bob Daykin: How do you shake the sand out of something that weighs a zillion pounds?
Trevor Shellhammer: Bob Daykin good question Bob. In those days...hard labor. Let it cool off, start digging and jack hammering away. If there's enough room, an electric clamshell bucket. Once you have the cast-on lifting lugs exposed, you can get a special lifting rig on it. Then, lots of muscle and sweat to chip and grind the sand and lumps off. Air arc off the gates and risers.
Bob Daykin: Trevor Shellhammer Wow. So new question-once the sand is poured, how do they get the pattern out of the mold box? Unbelievable.
Trevor Shellhammer: Bob Daykin mulled said is rammed around the pattern in the pit, in this case (no flask used), in layers, until the top is reached. I guess there is a flask for the cope (top) to hold the risers and metal runner/gate. I don't recall if the Steel Foundry had a mechanized sand slinger, or if this was entirely rammed by hand. The pattern was made in sections, with some loose pieces so it could be pulled out of the rammed mold. Possible because it was made with draft, or taper. The pattern makers not only knew reading blueprints, but draft and the shrink rules used for each type of metal (patterns made larger than drawing dim's to account for metal shrinkage during solidification and cooling).

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Casting being removed from the pit.

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Cleaning the casting, or what I like to say, "fettling"

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Going into the heat treat furnace.

Chad Bercosky shared an album that has ten photos.

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dumping slag pots at the slag plant pouring pits

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Wave generator closeup

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Crank disc for wave generator for Lukens Steel Company for Beach Erosion Board, Washington DC, shipped from No. 2 Machine Shop by PA trucking company A. Duie Pyle. August 30 1955, 27,320 lbs.

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BOF 7/9/69    92" forging ingot being poured at Basic Oxygen Furnace, Bethlehem plant.
Micah-John Kershner: How far-sighed to replace the Open Hearths with the BOF, and how short-sighted to not go to a Continuous Caster at the same time..
Bethlehem Steel Photographic History: The continuous caster was developed in Austria in the 1950s. Bethlehem Steel installed continuous casters at its Sparrows Point and Burns Harbor plants. They built an experimental one in the Bethlehem plant in the early 1960s west of the blast furnaces, in the former Lehigh open hearths. It was never a production caster and was abandoned a few years later.

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Quenching coke at the coke works

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Steelworkers' memorial to the U.S. armed forces.

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Dedication of the armed forces memorial erected by steelworkers near the main entrance to the plant, May 26, 1989.

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Magnet assembly (Atomic Energy Commission) for Midwestern Universities Research Assn., Madison, Wis.
Shipped from No. 2 Machine Shop to Allis Chalmers. West Allis Wis.
April 21 1959. 17,890 lbs

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rotor wheel for Newport News March 3 1952. Turning onto Wyandotte Street

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rotor wheel for Newport News being moved out of Bethlehem
shipped from No. 2 machine shop March 3 1952

From Trevor's comment on the first photo, I surmise that the building on the right was the pattern shop and the building on the left was the electrical repair shop. The building on the left is now the National Museum of Industrial History.

Street View

 

National Museum of Industrial History posted
A gem from the archives: View of the main gate to the Bethlehem Plant circa 1942 taken from the Steel General Offices (General Offices- East Building). The center of the image shows the Electrical Repair Shop which is now the museum building. In the right forefront is the roof of the Safety & Welfare Building. The top right of the image shows the Carpenter & Pattern Shop and in the top left of the photo you can see the construction of the Bethlehem Plant Office (Plant Office-West Building). Donated by Alex & Betty DeLeon.

Steve Vinosky posted a photo with the comment:

Bethlehem Steel 9" no 2 mill overhead view while looping.  

Pusher Furnace heated a standard 2 1/2" square billet that discharged to the roughing train.

Roughing train stands were

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4 to 5 was handled by a mill hand strander that would catch the tail end of the bar after it drops out of 4 stand.  and then place it in to 5 stand.

Looping was done in: 

5 to 6 stand

6 to 7 stand 

7 to 8 stand

8 to 9 finishing stand

Runout table

Hot bed transfer

shear roller table

shears

then pulled into cradles

unload cradles and send to the shipping department

Richard Kozak: A number got hurt.

Steve Vinosky: Richard Kozak yep, one guy on c turn has the bar pick the upper guide and sliced across his chest. He was burned and was back to work shortly after the accident. He was lucky. I have been burned several times, mostly on the 12 inch.

A closer look of the above stand looks like looping was being done in 7,8, and 9 stand. When the rolled bands 6, 7, 8, and stands were looped. Nothing was harder than looping 5" wide band.

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Bubba Dubs posted two photos with the comment: "Bethlehem Steel PA, Gas blowing engines that provided the blast to the furnaces. Ran on either blast furnace, coke oven, or natural gas. These are a few shots I didn't lose in my hard drive crash!!"

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I think Bethlehem made their big guns for the Navy at this site.

DeBruler

John Groves posted three images with the comment:

Photo 1: Bethlehem plant's 1968-vintage Combination Medium Beam Mill, closed in 1997. I am seeking any pictures of the 1908-vintage 48-inch Grey Heavy Beam Mill, upgraded with a new $50 million 59-inch roughing stand in 1989, then closed in 1995.

Photos 2 & 3: two excellent books on Charlie Schwab who built Bethlehem Steel into the world's second largest steel company.

I posted this recently in the Facebook group "Remembering Bethlehem Steel". But I hope it might trigger even wider interest here......

I have fond memories of visiting Bethlehem a number of times from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. But the most vivid of those memories was of the time I inspected the famous 1908-vintage Grey wide flange beam mill. What an amazing piece of history!

Bethlehem's President Charlie Schwab took great personal risk building the mill, but the new mill quickly gave Bethlehem leadership in the structural beam business and ushered in the era of high rise skyscrapers in New York and Chicago.

Does anyone have any photographs of the Grey Mill? Or any detailed history of the mill, or the $50 million upgrade in 1989?

One of the comments came from group member Ian Nevin, who posted "Charles Schwab was my great uncle. I did not know him."

I added this detailed response which might be of interest to all who follow the origins and history of Bethlehem Steel.

John Nevin, that is an amazing family connection.

I rank Charlie Schwab as one of the two titans in the creation of the modern American steel industry in the five decades from 1875.

The other guy was Schwab's mentor, Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie created the concept of the large-scale integrated steel mill and built up the world's largest steel company around Pittsburgh in the 1875 to 1900 period.

Schwab, aged 18, joined Carnegie Steel in 1879 at the famous Edgar Thomson mill under the legendary Captain Bill Jones. By 1886 and not yet 25, Schwab was General Superindentent of the fast-growing Homestead Works. It was his task to turn Homestead into the world's largest open hearth steel mill.

After Capt. Jones untimely death in 1889 in a blast furnace accident, 28 y.o. Schwab was appointed General Supt. of Carnegie's flagship Edgar Thomson mill. After the infamous Homestead strike in 1892, Schwab was moved back to restore industrial peace and renewed growth at Homestead, as well as remaining in overall control of Edgar Thomson. By 1897, aged just 35, he was President of Carnegie Steel.

In 1900/1901 Schwab played the key role in bringing together Carnegie and  J.P. Morgan to set up the world's first billion dollar corporation, U.S. Steel. Morgan agreed to pay $492 million for Carnegie Steel (equivalent to almost $16 billion in 2021 dollars).

Schwab, just turned 39, was named USS's first president. His salary in 1901 was $100,000, plus a $2 million bonus (equivalent to $3.25M salary and $65M bonus in 2021 dollars). After fundamental disagreements with USS chairman, Judge Elbert Gary, Schwab resigned in 1903.

Schwab then put his energies into acquiring Bethlehem Steel and over the next three decades building it into the world's second biggest steel company as U.S. Steel's key competitor.

Bethlehem Steel Corp  had a steelmaking capacity of less than 200,000 tpa in 1904.

By 1930 Schwab had expanded Bethlehem plant to 1.68 Mtpa. Schwab had also acquired though mergers major integrated plants at Steelton, Sparrows Point, Lackawanna, and Johnstown (Cambria). Bethlehem Steel's total steelmaking capacity had grown to 8.23 Mtpa by 1930. 

Charles Schwab has the unique record of serving as president of three of the world's most famous steel companies, Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel.

Nevertheless, Schwab's greatest achievement was his decision in 1905 to transform Bethlehem Steel from a military forgings and armor plate supplier into primarily a supplier of heavy H-beams and structurals. 

The construction of the first Grey universal beam mill in USA was a high risk venture for Bethlehem and for Schwab personally, as he was Bethlehem's majority shareholder. The Grey Mill also needed heavy investment in two 600 tpd blast furnaces, 10 x 50t open hearth furnaces and a 46-inch bloom mill to feed the new 48-inch Grey beam mill. A separate 40-inch bloom mill fed a 28-inch 3-stand structural mill and a 28-inch 3-stand rail mill. The total cost of the project was $4.5 million. The open hearth shop and mills were to be built on the new 250 acre Saucon site, adjacent to the existing 170 acre Lehigh plant.

The 40-inch bloom mill, the 28-inch rail mill and 28-inch structural mill were all supplied by Mesta Machine Co. Of West Homestead.

But the Grey mills, including the 46-inch bloom mill and the two x 48-inch universal stands were all built by Bethlehem Steel in its own shops, with the exception of the three steam engines, which were supplied by the William Todd Co. of Youngstown. No doubt the manufacture of the Grey mill in Bethlehem's shops was under the close design and personal supervision of Henry Grey. As well as paying royalty rights for use of Grey's patent, Schwab had to come up with $85,000, the sum Henry Grey and his son Charles were asking for overseeing the plant's construction. That is equivalent to almost $2.5 million in 2021 dollars.

But almost as soon as the project was authorised, the 1907 financial crisis hit and funding looked impossible. Schwab decided to take a huge risk on innovative financing, including convincing equipment suppliers to delay payment until the mill was operating. 

By January 1908 the mill was commissioned smoothly despite three-fold cost overruns (which took the total project cost to $12 million), but Schwab still needed another $1.5M in working capital. His retired friend Andrew Carnegie inspected the Grey Mill and was impressed with the new technology. He loaned Schwab some of his U.S. Steel bonds as collateral to finance bank loans.

Despite some initial reluctance from architects and builders, Bethlehem soon became dominant in the structural business and the new H-beam mill operated at full capacity for at least the next decade. The success of the famous "Bethlehem beams" ushered in the era of high-rise skyscrapers in New York and other cities. This set the strong base for Bethlehem Steel's rapid growth into the world's second largest steel company.

During his time as U.S. Steel president, Schwab had tried to convince Judge Gary to adopt the Grey H-beam technology. But Gary rejected this, given USS's already dominant position in the structurals market. Schwab offered the Grey Mill licence again in 1905 with the same result. Finally in the mid-1920s Judge Gary authorised the construction of high capacity universal H-beam mills at both Homestead and South Chicago plants. Bethlehem Steel immediately challenged this as infringing the Grey Mill patents. USS was forced to pay ongoing license fees for the technology.

[This post has lots of informative comments. One insight is that a cause of Bethlehem's bankruptcy was an unfunded pension plan.]

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Raymond Boothe posted
Painting of Lehigh Valley locomotive No. 637 passing the Bethlehem Plant of Bethlehem Steel Corporation (P. Lerro painting-1957).

Raymond Boothe posted
Bethlehem Steel-Bethlehem Plant: View of an EAF furnace inside of the alloy shop (HAER photo).
Calum Learn: Electric Furnace Melting Department (EFMD). Notice the BW spray painted on the slag door? That stood for "BethWorks" which was the original plan for the steel museum on the property.

Raymond Boothe posted
Bethlehem Steel Company-Bethlehem Plant: View of the gearbox of the rotating top of the "E" blast furnace (Dr. Raymond Boothe photograph).

 

Raymond Boothe posted
Bethlehem Steel Company-Bethlehem Plant: EAF Scrap Yard (Dr. Raymond Boothe collection).
[An Electric Arc Furnace means that Bethlehem did do some modernization of this plant.]

 

Raymond Boothe posted
Philadelphia, Bethlehem and New England (PB&NE) locomotive No. 20 seen on the grounds of the Bethlehem Steel Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (Dr. Raymond Boothe photograph).

Before it was a parking lot: 

Abandoned America posted
The Hoover Mason Trestle at the formerly abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, PA
Gallery: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/bethlehem-steel
James Torgeson shared
Robert Butvilla: Why was it called that ?
James Torgeson: Robert Butvilla Named for the engineering firm that designed it.

James Torgeson shared nine photos posted by Cornelius Johnson with the comment: "Bethlehem Steel's 'Home' Plant, which made its last steel in November 1995."

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Steven J. Brown posted
Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces abandoned and preserved, form the backdrop of the Steelstacks entertainment venue in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania - July 21, 2022. iPhone photo.

 

Derek Palmer commented on Steven's post
March 2021

Steven J. Brown posted
Bethlehem Steel hot metal car 64 abandoned below the blast furnaces that are preserved and form the backdrop of the Steelstacks entertainment venue in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania - July 22, 2022. Taken with my iPhone because the lens was small enough to shoot through a chainlink fence.

Steven J. Brown posted
Bethlehem Steel molten metal ladle transfer cars abandoned below the blast furnaces that are preserved and form the backdrop of the Steelstacks entertainment venue in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania - July 22, 2022. Taken with my iPhone because the lens was small enough to shoot through a chainlink fence.

This link shows a couple of Larry Cars in this plant.

Charlie Murphy posted 24 images from scanning a color brochure.

James Torgeson: September 1974 publication date.

Dave Kyle: Had a tour of that facility in the 1970's. Was most impressed by the lathes used to turn the huge generator shafts.

Dave Hoffman: Thanks for sharing. Martin Tower, the landmark former headquarters of Bethlehem Steel, was imploded Sunday morning, May 19, 2019.

Stephen Mcnally: i started in the # 1 fab shop 9/1973 after a few days guy said come on kid we are going over to the B O F they are giving out cake and coffee because they just paid it off . in 1969 the B O F and the combination mill were the biggest private investment in the U S

Matthew Mrzlock: Can anyone name the 11 plants that made up Bethlehem during this time period?

James Torgeson commented on Matthew's comment
Here's a list from January 1970.

1 of 4 photos posted by Matt Burks
Mark Nalepa: Where at ? Baltimore ?

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mark's comment
Bethlehem PA, https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

 

Nick Chismar posted
Looking out to the blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel home plant from the top floor of the former plant office. The building in the foreground with the flag is home to the National Museum of Industrial History. The former plant office is now the Fowler Center, part of Northampton Community College.

 

Nick Chismar posted
Levitt Pavillion beneath Blast Furnace "B" at the former Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Plant.
Keenan Quinn Shaffer: Are those furnaces maintained as tourist attractions or something? How long have they been down? Kinda' look like they're maintained.
Nick Chismar: Keenan Quinn Shaffer Some areas are maintained and have been repaired. They serve as a tourist attraction and backdrop for a cultural and arts center. I would argue that more work should be done to them, but for now they remain much like they were when Furnce C shut down in 1995 ending steelmaking in Bethlehem.

 

Nick Chismar posted
Looking out to Furnace A, B and C at in Bethlehem, PA. The arched buildings are the remains of the iron foundry, one of the oldest buildings on site. The arches did not only look good but being constructed before electricity they also were the main light source for those buildings. To the right is the corner of Building No.92, the Carpenter and Pattern Shop.
Terry Kelley: At USS Gary works almost all of the were like this. Thanks for sharing

Nick Chismar posted

A sense of scale. 

Here in Bethlehem, PA, you are able to walk along for former High line known as the Hoover-Mason Trestle. Currently, the walk takes you from the old stock house at the base of Furnace "A" all the way to the end of the cast house for Furnace "E" where you can walk down to the parking lot below. You can also get off halfway to view inside the former blowing engine house for the Furnaces.

The sense of scale shows just how enormous Blast Furnaces can be, but also how massive the operation was here in Bethlehem. 

This photo is from 2019, looking West along all five Furnaces. The walls of the blowing engine house are to my left.

Jon Wolfe posted
”A” Furnace at Bethlehem Steel

James Musser posted
Bethlehem Steel Highline - Boxing Day 2022. Except for the casino/outlet mall in the background, as left…
James Musser: I took the photo from the eastern end of the Hoover Mason Highline walking path. The trail ends at steps to a parking lot there.

James Musser posted
Another Beth Steel Boxing Day 2022 photo. Like the tubular elevator. Between A and B Furnace C, D, and E in background Dust catcher on left is for A Furnace.
Donough Shanahan: Do you know what gas cleaning they did. The gas washing tech was being introduced in some works in the mid 1900, 1905-08 across the USA and Europe, dry catchers had pre dated these. For USA this was important as it coincided with bfg driven blowers.
James Musser: Donough Shanahan the gas cleaning was upgraded during the 1950 rebuilds-washers and dual electrostatic precipitators A and B furnace shared some of this equipment but had individual dust catchers

James Musser posted
Beth Steel A Furnace. 3 pass stoves in L shaped arrangement. This furnace went cold in 1969, but still standing… originally built in 1920s, the furnace got a new top in the early 50’s and one stove was eliminated (5 to 4 stoves). Stoves are mostly as the looked in 1920s.

James Musser posted
Final Bethlehem post - Blowing engine house. I was fortunate to have had a tour of this plant and the inside of this building while the engines were operating. These engines are massive and it was a fairly sublime experience with the noise and all the moving parts….
Edward Fritz: In Steelton Pa old Beth Steel plant they are still using motors from the 1800s.
Rob Van Wagnen: Wonder Why does the one in about the middle of the picture look so much nicer than all the other ones ?
Andrew Dowd: Rob Van Wagnen i believe i read on another thread, that there was a group of volunteers granted access to “preserve” one of these compressors for sometime. The compressor in the center was in the best condition and had the least amount of water damage from the leaking roof. Then at some point they deemed the entire building un-safe years back and it now sits abandoned? I’m sure someone else will chime in.

Rick Rowlands commented on Andrew's comment
In 2008 working in conjunction with the NMIH and the casino, a group of us started working on engine 11 as a demonstration project to not only restore one engine to it's original appearance but to show the casino the importance of preserving the blowing engine house. We had expected that the casino would allow visitors to the interior of the building, but instead the safety officer abruptly condemned the building and prevented any further work. Some of the parts that we painted are still sitting there on sheets of plastic where they were when painted. The green matches a can of Beth engine green that a previous blowing engine superintendent gave us. I had a local paint manufacturer here in Youngstown match it for us.
At the time the deterioration to the roof was limited to a few spots, but over the past fifteen years the deterioration has spread. I feel that the same partnership that provided for the H&M trestle walkway could be used to repair the roof of the blowing engine house, but nobody in Bethlehem is leading an effort to advocate for the preservation of the structure.

Rick Rowlands commented on Andrew's comment

Bubba Dubs posted seven photos with the comment:

Work started on Bethlehem Steel’s multi function, Bessemer, three high rolling and merchant mill in 1868 and by 1873 the facility was complete. In the shape of a double cruciform, it had 4 large bays in two transepts. Its facilities were composed of 4 Bessemer converters, the three high rail mill designed by John Fritz as well as the machinery to make merchant bar stock. 

In the later days of the plant, it was used to make ingot molds. Today it still stands as a throw back to how Bethlehem started making steel in the city of Bethlehem

Dennis DeBruler: Found it: https://maps.app.goo.gl/xm15EFjhjgCXMauQ7

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Rick Rowlands posted 16 photos of the restoration of #11 blowing engine.

Rick Rowlands posted 14 photos of the blowing engine house.

7 photos

20 photos and 23 photos

5 photos of a walking tour including the 1891 Whitworth Bending Press that was used to make armor plate.

0:34 video of the interior of the blowing engine building

John Brensinger: That view is from the Hoover-Mason trestle walk that's built on the tracks for the ore cars.

73 drone photos

11 photos

15 photos emphasising the blowing engines